10/16/24 Animals on the Farm
With last week’s newsletter we received quite a few comments on the photo of Mocha the Goat. We all love animals, and I’ll take this moment to talk about animals on the farm (photos in this week’s email).
In our 17 years here we’ve had quite the menagerie of animals. We’ve had up to 500 laying hens, plus bees, ducks, cats, dogs, goats, sheep, and of course Charlie the Llama. Let me start there, since you all get emails from Charlie the Llama. We inherited Charlie when we moved onto the farm almost 18 years ago. The prior farmers took advantage of the fact that llamas are very clean and always use the bathroom in the same location and brought him inside to watch TV. As a result, he was extremely sweet with humans. He died at the ripe age of 25 (about 7 years ago) and CSA members at that time told us to keep the email address. Charlie came with three sheep which passed away far before him, but were all trained to leashes and being out on picket lines, a technique we still use with our goats as a way to mow the unfenced, non-crop land of the farm. After the initial sheep died we had many Soay, a lovely variety of small hair sheep that manage for themselves. After Charlie passed away, however, we began to have serious predation issues and lost enough of our flock that we quickly found a home for the remainder.
Our current primary animals are Mocha the Goat (whom we milked for 8 years) and her last three kids (prior to being retired from milking). These kids are named Roma(nesco), Cauli and Flower - together this makes Romanesco Cauliflower as we are a veggie farm more than an animal farm. These triplet kids were born April 2020 as Covid lockdown was in full effect and became our socialization (especially for our kids after distance learning). They are often in their home pasture near the barn when CSA members come. Although they are friendly with us, they often say hello to strangers with their horns and so we recommend people appreciate them from a slight distance. They go often go out to one of their 6 pastures at the edges of the property and help us manage the parts of the farm around the fields, which supports our farm operations.
As mentioned, we used to have chickens. Early on in farm we had layers in chicken tractors that were moved through the farm. An early employee Marty had started his own egg business here (Half Wild Farm). Then eventually moved off our farm and we continued to supply our CSA with Half Wild Eggs for several years. Sadly we haven’t had eggs for our CSA for several years now. But even last year we had a small flock of 20 to help us destroy pernicious weeks and give the farmers some eggs. Last November a wily fox or other predator got into the coop and killed the whole group. Elizabeth, the primary chicken care giver, just needed a break and after not getting chicks last winter/spring both really enjoyed the decrease in responsibility and noticed a shift in the number of rats in the area (which can really affect our nursery and compost operations). So… no more chickens.
We also a farm dog, Wenge, from before the farm until two years ago. We had minimal deer pressure as a result of Wenge and as he aged and then died deer pressure increased until last summer we invested in a gate.
Early on we found three barn cats, whom we trained and treated as hunters. Theo would bring in a rodent a day and his brothers fewer but still sufficient. This felt like an important addition to the farm, but we’re rethinking that one too. One passed on last year and the other two are now 17 years old and mostly sleep on our deck. You would think our rodent pressure was exploding, but instead we had a family of foxes move onto the property this summer who certainly did their share of hunting.
So this has us considering the role of domesticated animals on the farm and their impacts. If losing chickens means fewer rats, and losing dogs and cats means more wild predators, maybe we just continue providing habitat for our native animals. This story continues to unfold…
Produce Notes & Recipes
This Week’s Box
Frisée
Broccoli
Mixed Tomato Quart
Summer Pint Surprise (Shishitos, Strawberries or Cherry Tomatoes)
Brassica: Cabbage (SR) OR Cauliflower (WC)
Asian Pears
Family: Napa Cabbage & Basil
What an amazing autumn box. We had our first rain last weekend (almost a half inch!) and the leaves are turning.
We cannot believe we have TWO heading Brassicas in the box for half of you (Cauliflower & Broccoli). Normally we would stretch this into a couple different boxes but the heat wave last week and the week prior brought both to fruition at that same time. Both are beautiful crops that we’re very happy with. Our family enjoyed some of the broccoli just steamed with a peanut sauce on it two nights ago. We usually don’t give broccoli recipes as you have told us it flies in your households.
So those of your in West County have the Cauliflower and those in Santa Rosa have either Green or Red Cabbage (and a couple a small head of each). We have enjoy these shredded onto tacos, a slaw of their own or thrown into a braise.
For our Summer Pint Surprise this week we were surprised at how many Shishitos we have. All of West County, Devine Site plus a few more people in Santa Rosa received Shishitos, most everyone else has Strawberries with a few people getting Cherry Tomatoes.
This week we have a beautiful head of Frisée for you in lieu of a lettuce head. We grew this up against one of our hedgerows, a perfect place to grow a light green through the heatwaves we had just last week. Frisée is a Chicory or Endive and we are growing a lot more of these this winter than prior winters, we’ll see how much more makes it into CSA vs heading to markets. These two names are used actually different (Chicories are perennials and Endives annuals) but in the kitchen they work the same.
Frisée, Escarole, Radicchio, Dandelion, Belgian Endive are all part Chicories/Endives. They are closely related to lettuces, but heartier and with a bitter edge. They are cool weather crops and considered bitter greens. They are great for adding a pleasant, slightly bitter freshness to all sorts of dishes. There are a lot of health benefits to bitter greens: they help us absorb nutrients, detoxify our livers, they’re packed with vitamins and minerals, and they reduce sugar cravings and balance your taste buds.
Chicories can be a little strong on their own, if you like bitter taste (and some of our members do), certainly do a salad of just them or mix it with your lettuce. Traditionally Frisée is the base for Salad Lyonnaise with a poached egg on top. This is truly wonderful. As a salad, it pares best with a strongly flavored dressing such as a balsamic dressing or something with a strongly flavored cheese like gorgonzola. Below is a recipe for the first well known Frisée salad - Salad Lyonnaise, but don’t feel you need to stick with that.
The center of your Chicory will be more tender so you could also use the inner leaves on salads and keep the outer leaves for cooking.
If you are not that into the bitter flavor, a little cooking will mellow that out (as with most strong flavors including arugula, radishes and more). It is certainly wonderful wilted, added to omelet or frittata, with beans, in a soup or pasta. Personally I just wilt it with garlic, olive oil and chili flakes plus some mushrooms if I have them. Other members have found that Frisée is their favorite green eaten with bacon or cooked in bacon grease because it pares so well.
Poached Egg and Bacon Salad - Salad Lyonnaise Recipe (from simplyrecipes.com)
2 c fresh frisée lettuce, torn into bite sized pieces
2 - 4 strips bacon
1 Tbs chopped shallots
2 slices French or Italian bread and a little butter to make buttered croutons
2 Poached egg
2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook strips of bacon on medium heat until done, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, let drain of excess fat on a paper towel. Once cool, chop.
Cut slices of French or Italian bread into cubes. Toast on medium high heat in a small saucepan with a teaspoon of melted butter. Do not stir bread unless to turn to a different side once one side is toasted.
Poach eggs your favorite way.
Layer the frisée, bacon, shallots, and croutons on a salad plate. In a small jar, mix the olive oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper. Pour dressing over salad. Top with the poached egg.
Serves 2.
Families this week have Napa Cabbage. This is a crop that DID NOT fare well as a result of many heat waves (going back into August when they were planted). Most of the crop is a loss and as such, we’re sad to not have it for everyone and just have enough for Family Boxes.
Although growing back slowly, the Basil is still doing great in our hoop houses. We’ll see if we can get into boxes, but at lease we have on add-ons if you want to enjoy. We always try to have a diversity of herbs and many of the other items we have on our Add-On list.